2yr old wont eat...

Mary - posted on 12/24/2009
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I have a two year old son who has CF. He was dx at birth. He has had multiple surguries (removal of meconioum ileus, Nissen, GT). They had put the GT in about a year ago. he has been doing okay with it so far. our only problem is that we can not get him to eat. we have to tube everything. he will pick at things, but to actually get him to eat is a challenge. Does anyone else have this problem or know something i can do? Please help!!!

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Louan - posted on 05/30/2013

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I'm so stressed out I'm on the verge of tears! My daughter will be 2 in August. She just won't eat anything anymore! I've tried everything but even her favorite foods she'll only have a bite or two then she won't touch it anymore! HELP!!!!!!!!!! She was in the 25% but who knows where she's at now! I'm also scared because we give her her enzymes with food but then she won't eat can the enzymes cause harm if taken without food??????

My son is very picky too and just last night i was cutting up a little meat for his plate(which Is the hardest thing to get him to eat) and I didn't really pay any attention to the fact that i was cutting them into shapes, which is something he is learning about and pretty familiar with. Well He yells out square....rectangle....and he's all excited, so I went right along with him and tried to encourage his interest. It worked like a charm...he ate all his meat and wanted more. Then when it came to the corn(which I usually dont have a problem getting him to eat; howver this time I had over cooked it and it was mushy!) I simply identified it a "Little yellow squares"...and gulp...down the hatch went the corn !!!!!!!!! Also I would suggest letters and numbers or using cookie cutters for shapes or u can just cut the food into smaller shapes yourself if u want. Around this age is when a lot of kids are learning letters of the alphabet, numbers, colors and shapes.....so try to make meals fun and interesting to them....whatever is most appealing to them. Good Luck....I really think I've hit the jackpot here this time.

What i used to do is let my son eat as much as he could and then i would supplement with a can of his high calorie milk. But what i learned was children with CF have a different taste of food than we do. With my son something that tasted like strawberry would taste like a grain chocolate to me. But don't get upset because he wont eat he just doesn't have the appetite and that's why they make those high calorie milkshakes. I used to make a milkshake for my son with whipping cream and polycose syrup and ice cream but i had to adjust his enzymes because it was so rich. But this was once in awhile in a week i would give him this but instead of getting after him to eat it was hard on both of us so i would just supplement until he felt like eating and usually in a few days of supplementing him he would start eating more . But this was one of the hardest things for us mealtime because we want our kid's especially if they are ill to eat to keep up the strength but most of the time you will have to supplement believe me because i had to do this with my son for 16 years. I don't know what your eating habits are but i used to let my son eat anytime and anything he wanted threw the day well at least he was eating right. And at night he used to have a drip for extra calories but don't let it be hard on yourself or your son for eating there's no rules for eating when you have a child with CF God be with you for help .

Does he like to drink? My boys are a bit picky but I manage to get them to drink Ensure Plus. (These are full of fat, calories and vitamins.) I put cheese, real butter and salt in everything I make. I used to make like tons of things for 1 meal because I was scared of the boys not getting enough calories/fat, but now I make 1 meal with a few things and they have to eat a decent amount or they don't get down. I was a wreck. My youngest was at 0% weight for almost 1st year and was 25% until 2 1/2, then I stopped catering to my boys. Right now they are between 40-50% for weight and height. Hang in there!!!!

Wow, I know how challenging it can be. My little guy can be picky too and its very hard. Some things that have worked for us is making some recipes out to the Toddler Cafe book. He particularly likes Toddler truffles which are like bean cake balls and nut butter balls.

Pushing seems to make it worse and its so hard not to get frustrated when you know they need so many calories. I try to make it fun. Lately he likes to hide a stick in the christmas tree and we takes bites of calorie rich cream of wheat in between the hiding.

also have you tried zinc? when we started him on a supplement he chowed down for 2 weeks like we've never seen before. ask your dietician. we try so many things. some days are better then others.

i don't know if I was much help. just want to let you know you are not alone. hang in there.